Hats off to the new CAP system!

Every student’s worst fear is ineligibility. Scoring 70% or below on any assignment USED to mean that students couldn’t participate in their extracurricular activities. However, recent changes in this system have set students’ minds at ease.
This system, known as the CAP system, was used to encourage students to stay at a 70% average grade. The letters in CAP used to stand for conduct, attendance, and preparedness. Now, the last letter stands for performance instead.
The students are scored in each category, awarded a one, two, three, or an elusive 4 based on that week’s classes. Scoring a 2 or below in performance sparks that dreaded ineligibility and an email home.
Now, CAP has changed. It has become easier for students to remain in their after-school activities. Still, they won’t be allowed to participate if their overall grade falls below 70%.
Many students believe it is better to be ineligible based on their overall grade, since in the past ineligibility has been based on each individual assignment.
Camille James, ’17, stated the advantages of the CAP system, saying, “I think that the strengths of this new CAP is that it won’t call you out as much for mistakes or not studying well enough for a test, and this makes it easier to keep a high CAP score!” James also mentioned a possible flaw in the new rules, which is that it could lead to, ” slack, [and] people not caring as much because it won’t affect their CAP”.
Mr. Tiffany believes that the main strength of the new CAP is that it causes less stress for the students because of the overall-grade basis. The old CAP caused lots of work for the students, as well as the teachers, in regards to retakes and missing after school activities.
“When you graduate from PA, and you look back on your transcript, we want it to be able to accurately reflect your experience here,” says Mr. Tiffany. He added that since now teachers are encouraged to give out fours on a “more objective basis”, students number of high scores will increase; however, they won’t get any points for their house.